Hopeless Place
by Lauka2
Summary: (Post Apocalyptic AU) The world has been become a barren wasteland, and the rich sit in cities with high walls to keep them in comfort. But some question whether or not everything outside the walls are as they have been taught from a young age, and travel outside the walls, some never to be seen again.


oh hey, I'm writing again, neat  
Anyways, this story contains OCxCanon pairings, please do not send hate my way for having those in here.  
I'll try to remember any triggers that may come up in the story

Maria mentioned in this chapter is my OC, used mainly for the USM cartoon, but i have also used her in other Marvel related things. Questions about her are welcome

Please enjoy!

* * *

Escaping the house was easier said than done. Maria had to sneak around like she never had before, avoiding cameras, alarms, guards and god knows who else that had been set up to keep them safe.  
But today, she was gonna run away, run off, leave it all behind. Maybe then her mother would care about her, care about her being gone, possibly dead. She definitely never seemed to care when Maria was around.  
And so, Maria managed to make it outside, make it out of the garden, made it out without triggering any alarms or alerting the guards. She made it out with only the clothes on her body, and whatever her backpack and duffel bag could carry.  
Clothes, sanitary items, cash and food with a long expiration date. She had taken as little as possible as she escaped out of her home, where she'd grown her whole life. The big capital, the safe zone.

"Now the real fun begins" she mumbled to herself as she stared ahead of her. She knew no one who had ever been outside the walls of the Capital, in the wilderness.  
Some said that the wilderness would thin out, become and unlivable barren wasteland, others said the wilderness continued forever. Well, Maria was only gonna find out one way, and that was by going. She didn't even care if she was gonna survive or not.

Anything would be better than to live and die in a cold, loveless and almost clinical home, married off to some rich dude, who even knows what age, to keep her mother's fortune safe.  
Even dying of thirst in a cold desert would be better. Because at least that would've been her own choice, her own decision. As the branches and leaves crinkled and snapped under her feet, she felt herself swell. It was like a pressure had held her tight for all her life, and as she wandered around, away from the eyes of her friends, family and peers, she was free.  
It was one of the best feelings she'd had in a while. Of course, she would need to get a lot farther away to make sure she wouldn't get caught and sent back home, reprimanded and scolded.

She heard a noise from above and snapped her head to attention. It was, chirping. She knew what birds were, she'd seen them, in cages and sanctuaries.  
Yet there one was, free from any cage or imprisonment, just flying around. The chirps it made sounded weirdly, foreign to her, although she had heard birds plenty of times before. It flew off into the distance, and she began noticing all the sounds around her.  
Wind blowing in the leaves, birds all around, some sounded small and some big, she heard buzzing, there was a small stream nearby.  
It was beautiful.

* * *

Danny looked out through the window, out towards the horizon, the treeline. It had been a very long day of meetings, talk about his future and the future of the company he'd inherited. He'd listened of course, he knew he had to.  
But did he want to? Not at all. He wanted to go home and sit in his garden, just listen to it. The garden was a small piece of the world he lived in, that was his to decide over. Decide what should be in there, what shouldn't, who should and shouldn't. It was one of the most freeing things in his life.  
A small freeing thing in what he would call a caged life.  
It wasn't out of the ordinary, he knew that. All his friends and all the people he knew lived in this city after all. Richest city in the world, which honestly wasn't something to boast he also knew. The most of the world was barren he was told.  
He was told a lot, he realized as he looked out the window.  
A world of either enourmous bounty, or complete barren wasteland. There was nothing in between, again, that was what he'd been told.

He didn't like that he didn't want that to be reality. He wanted to see for himself, wanted to know if it was true.  
If there was something else, something more out there, he wanted to see it, he wanted to know it. And he was gonna know it. He knew how to sneak out of the city, unseen and unheard. He'd done it once, gotten out and seen the wild unruly trees just outside the city walls. But he'd been too scared to leave then, too unprepared.  
This time, he wouldn't be. He looked away from the window and over at the bag. Essentials in a backpack. He'd hid it away when he got it, made his purchases small and untrackable. He bit his lip in anticipation.  
The clothes he was wearing were stiff, a little itchy. He wasn't sure if it was just how the material was supposed to feel, or if he was having an allergic reaction. It wasn't gonna stop him however, and he put on the backpack. It felt heavy on his shoulders, heavier than anything he'd ever carried. But he wasn't gotta back down. He needed, wanted, to do this.  
If he died out in the wild, if he survived, it didn't matter. He was gonna see what was out there, satiate his curiosity, finally know for certain instead of just having been told by the Adults around him.

He was gonna miss his garden the most out of everything he left behind. He sincerely hoped someone would tend to it while he was gone, or someone else would take it over if he never came back.  
But he was doubtful that would happen. It was just a small green spot in the mansion, a tiny green house, it would be repurposed as soon as they knew he wasn't coming back.  
Which is why one of the things he'd taken with him, was a small flower from it, set in clear resin. It would be the one thing he'd take to remind him of the world he was leaving behind.

The trip was surprisingly short, he remembered it being much longer the last time he went. Maybe the sense of dread he felt before made it all longer. He was crawling through an old water pipe, long forgotten but still in place, it hadn't yet been in the way of now construction, or melted down for metals.  
Rust fell off the sides as he slid his hand over the surface of it. It was probably one of the oldest things in the city, maybe even the world, he sort of grimly thought to himself.  
The end came quickly, and he had to take a small jump out of the pipe. Then he was free, free and out. The trees seemed to go on forever from where he stood. Long, gnarled and green at the top.  
He'd never seen anything so beautiful.


End file.
